Harmony on Hafralonsá

Harmony in life generally refers to a state of balance, agreement, and peaceful coexistence within oneself or with one’s surroundings.

Hafralonsá has always intrigued me and indeed is an intriguing river. To my mind it has always been cast (wrongly in my view) by those who have fished it in year’s gone by as ‘a man’s river’ requiring a robust approach for ‘real men fishers’ and if one did not fit into such a category, one should not bother to consider fishing it and one was clearly not a truly hard-core salmon fisher. Then came ‘the influencer’ era which had the same connotations – this river is reserved exclusively for the hard men of the salmon fishing world – big fish – lots of skill and real manliness required.

During more recent years, the river has been in the hands of various leaseholders for short periods, and one had the sense it was being fought over but equally being passed around and not finding a true home. Too often in Iceland leases are so short that the leaseholder lacks the inclination to invest and look after a river – the policy is more likely to be make money as fast as possible. In summary, even I was a little fearful of the whispered word Hafralonsá and wondered if I was going to be up to it. You can imagine my surprise (admittedly in a low water year) when I found myself happily fishing a 6 weight (and even 4 weight), single-handed rod covering the pools with ease. Though I would agree that perhaps a 7 weight, a switch and maybe a 12ft rod would be the perfect armoury for all heights of water. Let me expand.

The first signs that there was more to the Hafralonsá than machismo was when I started chatting to guides who I consider friends. They all went gooey with me when I said I was headed to the Hafralonsá. These guys are guides who might be your guides on the river and whom I truly respect as salmon fishing guides.

The gentle Stebbi, who guides the great and the good on Sela, almost had tears in his eyes as he told me about landing his first ever Atlantic salmon on the fly on Hafralonsá as a teenager. The brainiest, thinking-est salmon guide I know, Sigthor, went all weak at the knees as he told me with his characteristic gentle, soft voice, ‘you will really like it’ with a dazed, jealous tone. Land speed record holder for fastest driver on the bumpy Hafralonsá roads (when alone in the car) Angus, who has fished the Hafralonsá since he was 12, goes all stary eyed and romantic (rare for him) as he reminisces about his days on Hafralonsá. His affection for Maggie, a river-owner, farmer and cook at the lodge is also charming and a testament to his many happy days on the river.

Finally, the dashing, debonair Hugo with whom I work almost daily tells me with a sparkle in his eyes that he always takes the opening days on the river… loyalty his girlfriend must dream about!  These guys are not macho, egotistical men lacking substance or skill to back up their reputations, these are some of Iceland’s best, hand-picked and lured to the north-east to create the finest guide team ever assembled in Iceland and I truly respect them. Their opinions and confidence that I would fall in love with Hafralonsá helped put my concerns about my manliness at ease.

The organisation that did the assembling of this talented guide team (and there are many others that are also part of the team) is the Six Rivers Foundation – in their own words – a not-for-profit conservation programme, which seeks to reverse the decline of Atlantic salmon. The Hafralonsá has, in my view, found its natural home where it will be properly cared for and its restoration can begin in earnest and has the time to weather the naturally induced, peaks and valleys that any salmon river endures. The first decision made for Hafralonsá was a very good one – a reduction from 6 rods to 4 – and in my view, 3 or even 2 rods would be even better but luxurious on this 28 kms river with 55 names pools plus three others 0, 00 and 000 – all of which can be great so really 58 pools! The second was to close the tributary, the Kverka, allowing those salmon complete peace.

Hafralonsá is also blessed to be one of the Six Rivers (Sela, Hofsa, its tributary the Sunnudalsa, the Mio, Vesturdalsa and Hafralonsá) subject to the same rules as all the others. These are certainly the most enlightened rules within Icelandic salmon river management and probably across the whole Atlantic salmon platform. They are…

No weighted flies
No sink or sink-tip lines
No hooks bigger than size 12
Two fishing sessions per day of no longer than 4 hours per session
No more than 2 fish from any pool in one session
Not more than four fish per rod per session
Full catch and release of all species
Any dead/bleeding fish should be returned to the lodge’s kitchen

What these rules achieve is as follows:

Less fishing pressure but great fishing for everyone
Less impact on the fish
Better fishing for everyone through the season due to less pressure of weighed or bigger flies
Avoids excess when the opportunity to catch big numbers of fish arises
A more balanced season for all
No ‘damage’ to pool for the next guest who may fish it due to too many fish being caught or the way in which the fish were fished for
No incentive to kill fish in the hope of taking it home by calling it ‘a bleeder’

My only footnote to the rules is that Hafralonsá generally has colder water than the other rivers so at times, the no weight rules might be a little more of a handicap. The good news however is that the cold means a superb run of arctic char up to and over 6lbs and plenty of them catchable on dry fly as well as salmon flies etc.

These rivers also benefit from the most forward-thinking Atlantic salmon conservation effort in Iceland which includes tagging on all rivers, radio tagging and tracking on some of them, relocation of fish in the autumn to spawn in tributaries to open up the expanse of water available to the salmon, a massive tree-planting project to enhance bio-matter in the rivers to, in turn, enhance food in the river, predator control with the focus on the non-indigenous mink. As a consequence, and the affection this river garners from so many, I have high hopes for this river.

The river currently has its old lodge which Six River has made perfectly respectable. It is a little tired looking from the outside and some windows could do with some attention, but it is bright and clean inside. It has six comfortable bedrooms, including four double rooms that share two bathrooms, and two double rooms with en-suite bathrooms. There is a large open-plan kitchen/sitting area and there are three options for catering – self-catering, the wonderful Maggie that I have mentioned cooking, or the gourmet option. The lodge has stunning panoramic views of the river as it bends round the lodge.

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There is a real bonus with HUGE potential too which would make Hafralonsá unique – overlooking the stunning Pool 35 or Stekkjarhylur (which incidentally fishes from the other side and has a nice tail where I hooked three fish!) is a large fishing hut which I pray Six Rivers restores and makes it really comfortable. At present it can be used but the furniture is old (which admittedly is perfect for sitting on with waders) but I envisage going up to the upper part of the river for the day, fishing the morning session, then coming back to the cabin, having lunch and a nap in a comfortable (warm if need be) bed before going out again for the evening session and returning home for dinner. Based on four rods, two could do this on one of the full days of the three-day programme and two the other day. If you were two rods – just one upriver and one down. If you were three rods, one on the lower, one on the middle and one on the upper. There is plenty of water! This cabin really would/does make for a special situation. Maybe one day rods could overnight there reminiscent of the Alaskan outpost camps? In summary, for 2026 (this piece is written autumn 2025) there is a perfectly nice and comfortable accommodation option. For 2027, potentially, the new lodge will be ready – there are some artist impressions of the lodge below and I refer you to my piece on the Mio here to see the standards to which that lodge has been built.

I need to come back to the river itself, to those misty-eyed guides whose affection for the river was so palpable. I note that even the river’s own website makes comments like “Untamed, harsh, remote… Explore the wild and rugged Hafralonsá and… best suited to those who are fit and adventurous”. I am afraid I think these descriptions are a little harsh or misleading so let’s look at the facts:

Pools 000 to 16 are either ‘get out of the car and fish’ pools or a short walk into a mild canyon with a perfectly walkable return to the car of a five-minute walk with an incline of perhaps 10 to 20 metres from getting out of the river to the height at which the car is parked. Numerically it is likely half and half and some pools like 14, 15 and 16 are all fished via the same walk in and out, so you get three prime, easily fished, pools for the price of one walk.

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Pools 17 to 25 – 9 pools to be precise – are in the famous Hafralonsá canyon. Some are actually an easy walk down, some are a joke (two that I saw of the 9) and I would not go there and two have some metal stairs in very good repair which are a long way up and down, but the stairs make it infinitely easier. Personally, I think the photo of someone clinging to a rope is misleading, there are two pools with ropes and the one I saw was a joke and if I was guiding, I would not allow guests to try and go down unless they were serious genuine army or mountaineering types!

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Pools 26 upwards are a mix of ‘pull up to the pool in the car’ pools to some clambering up and down but nothing like the few pools in the deep canyon. I have fished Sela for 30+ years and can honestly say that the worst of Hafralonsá is child’s play compared to some of Sela. There is a walk from pool 50 to the top pool 55 (the breath-taking Lax Foss and final barrier), the guide said it was 20 minutes, and he was likely right all the way to the top but there are some truly stunning and interesting pools in between. I feel I need to qualify my comments and reveal my age and stage – I am 60 at the time of writing – I do not believe that any of my guide friends would describe me a lythe and a fit stick insect yomping up and down the canyons in peak condition though I was a sportsman in my day – First XI Football, The Field and all that!

Back to the words “Untamed, harsh, remote, wild and rugged”…

Most rivers in Iceland are untamed and certainly pretty much all those in the north-east of Iceland are – they all disappear into the hinterland of the interior of Iceland where only pink-footed geese, arctic foxes and reindeer hang out along with ancient wild trout and freshwater arctic char. Untamed is their appeal.

By their very nature – the majority of rivers in Iceland are harsh because they are very rocky and Hafralonsá is no exception.

Happily, the Hafralonsá, and its sister rivers, are all remote, wild and rugged – it is why they are so good and why we love them. It is why so many birds thrive unmolested by man or beast and in the case of the Six Rivers Foundation, a much-reduced threat from mink. I am hesitant to repeat myself but when it comes to remote, a night in that cabin would be amazing!

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These words are all assets to the river, not something to fear or be wary of especially with the calibre of guides looking after you.

So why have I joined the ranks of my guide friends in having a soft spot for Hafralonsá? I have not mentioned the all-important calibre of the water we fish and the pools themselves. The water itself is ultra-clear so spotting the fish (which the guides do frequently) is easy, at least for the guides!

There was one pool which was awkward to fish – it is a named pool, but it is really a spot and a whacky one at that. You fish the top part having clambered down a way and the bottom part from the bottom of the pool upstream. I am not saying I did not enjoy fishing it, but it was the only one that was not mouth-watering and a delight to fish.

The best way to sum up the pools on Hafralonsá is to take a comment made by the brainy Sigthor, a man of few words but when he speaks it is sure worth listening to. We were actually on the Sela and discussing the rule of having to leave the pool after catching two fish and I commented how I was entirely content to leave the pool having caught a couple of fish. His classic Sigthor response was “that is because you are going to another equally stunning pool” and he would be right and that certainly applies to Hafralonsá every bit as much as Sela. The only difference for me is I know the Sela pools intimately. This is the reason they all so love the river, it is truly beautiful water and finally there is the fish themselves…

Hafralonsá is rightfully known for its bigger fish. I am not talking Norwegian big, but I am saying that it is perfectly reasonable to expect a high percentage of your fish to be in the teens with the possibility of 20lbs fish. You are not going to have a bonanza, but you will get seriously aggressive takes from some good-sized fish taking the small, classic Icelandic patterns (the hitch works extremely well) which will take off down the river with you in hot pursuit or, as one of my fishing partners experienced, have the fish charge up the pool and go round a big rock, then back down the length of the pool, weave you round another rock and then snap you off before you even know what is happening!

To conclude, I am as excited for the Hafralonsá and its future as I am about fishing the river. My whole experience was a pleasure from start to finish – the lodge, its views, the pools, the aggressive nature of the fish, that special day using the cabin, the wildness, remoteness – everything. At two rods, the river is going to be very special indeed, at four it is going to be great value.

This river is in very good hands now and it should have a bright future – it is not for the old like the majority of rivers in Iceland but if you wish to embark on a romance or long-term relationship with a river with an excellent chance of a great future and have privacy, only sharing your river with friends and family, there probably is no better bet than the Hafralonsá at present.

To come back to Harmony with Hafralonsá – I was truly in balance, agreement, and peaceful coexistence within myself and my surroundings.

End…